Pediatrics

The pediatrics department is dedicated to the health and well being of infants, children, and teens offering care to children from birth to 18 years of age. We place an emphasis on establishing a long relationship of trust and care with our patients and their families. We are committed to delivery of high quality care by a professional and compassionate staff by treating patients as we would our own families. We offer a wide range of services not only for acute problems and well-child evaluations but also for a variety of more specialized care services.

Our areas of expertise include special care for teens, help with breast feeding, instruction for asthma care and in-department mental health services to name a few. We have providers with special interest in neonatology, infectious disease, learning problems, adolescent medicine and asthma. Many of our staff are bilingual with primary emphasis on providing care for our Spanish- speaking patients. We have regularly scheduled pediatric specialty care offered in genetics and endocrinology.

Medical care is provided by an experienced staff composed of 14 physicians, 3 pediatric nurse practitioners, and 40 support staff members made up of pediatricians, a service unit manager, pediatric nurse practitioners, registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, medical assistants, tele-service representatives, and patient service representatives.

Reach Out and Read

Promoting literacy at Kaiser Santa Rosa where volunteers read in the waiting room and children six months to five years receive a new book at every well-check visit. The Reach Out and Read program is a national effort to prepare children for school.

The program was designed by a team of pediatricians and early childhood educators from Boston Medical Center in 1989. It integrates parent education about literacy development into regular pediatric care for children between the ages of six months and five years, taking advantage of regularly scheduled well-child visits to reach parents of young children before they enter school.

Kaiser Santa Rosa became a Reach Out and Read site in June 2001. When your child visits his/her pediatrician for a regular well child exam between the age of six months and 5 years of age he/she will be given a developmentally and culturally appropriate book as a gift. The immediate goal of Reach Out and Read is for the children to begin incorporating these books as a source of entertainment as they accumulate a library of books.

Dr Morales and pediatric manager Denise Lincoln, RN direct the program here at Santa Rosa. "The program makes reading fun as it prepares children to enter school," says Lincoln. "It also makes children healthier, because research shows that reading out loud to infants and young children stimulates brain growth and language skills, and strengthens the bond between parent and child."

We gladly accept donations of new and gently used books, as well as contributions to buy new books. We always need volunteers to read to children in our pediatric waiting room.